Withholding Evidence

From IBD:
Posted 3/27/2006

Legal Reform: A jury awards $26.2 million to a New Jersey man who crashed into the back of a flatbed truck. Yes, there is something wrong with this picture.

The supersized monetary award is absurd, of course. But what's really out of whack is the fact that the jury wasn't allowed to hear all the evidence.

As we see it, Michael Boyle is responsible for the wreck. The former iron worker was headed home from New York City on Route 46 in Little Falls, N.J., in January 2002, when he crashed into the rear of a flatbed Ford.
As we understand it, he was driving about 60 miles an hour at night with his lights off and made no attempt to brake before making impact. Those factors led to a charge of unsafe driving and an eventual plea of guilty.

Yet this information, as relevant as it may seem, was kept from the jury by New Jersey Superior Court Judge Christine Miniman in a product liability civil case that Boyle brought against Ford Motor Co. and the maker of the truck's under-ride guard,

No surprise, then, that the jury ruled in Boyle's favor.

Under-ride guards are placed on trucks such as one Boyle hit in order to keep vehicles from becoming entangled in the event of a rear-end collision. Boyle's lawyer argued that the guard his client hit broke off on impact, allowing his car to slide under the truck, sheering off the hood and passenger compartment and leaving Boyle with massive head injuries.

We regret Boyle was so badly hurt. But he alone is to blame. If he indeed had his lights off, and if he failed to hit the brakes, and if he was traveling at 60 mph — which we assume was over the speed limit, since he pleaded guilty to the unsafe driving charge — then Boyle's at fault.

To keep such information from jurors and allow them to blame the defendants makes a mockery of the justice system.

The jury's colossal award is likely to be reduced on appeal. But the case will nonetheless have an impact beyond the plaintiff and the defendants. Liability lawsuits, two-thirds of which are frivolous, cost the economy nearly $250 billion a year, and cases such as Boyle's only encourage more.

Lawyers will keep filing suits, judges will do little to separate the legitimate from the frivolous and legislatures full of lawyers will continue to resist fixing a tort system that is obviously broken.

Meanwhile, the price of nearly everything goes up to help pay for the judgments (let alone fight them), innovation suffers as lawyers claim new products are a company's admission that previous products are faulty, and too many companies are plunged into bankruptcy, hurting workers and shareholders.

Give credit to the lawmakers who understand the stakes and are toiling for reform. Their task is not an easy one, but it is well worth the effort.